A snuffle-shuffle in the undergrowth warned of the presence of something sizeable in the forest edge and I froze on the spot which, as things turned out, was just as well!

It was 1 pm on a bright, sunny, summer day and I was walking along the track leading to my mountain home after a trip to the local bazaar, and instinct telling me that it was certainly not a foraging goat in the undergrowth. I was very wary indeed as, and I never forget this, this is leopard country and meeting a leopard head on is not my idea of fun!

What emerged from the thick undergrowth though was not a leopard but certainly just, if not even more, dangerous and I was lucky to be standing downwind so that the ferocious animal didn’t catch my scent and, due to the weak eyesight of its kind, I don’t think it saw me either. The animal in question was a huge wild boar with, to my horror, seven piglets in tow and everyone knows that a wild boar with young is a lethally dangerous animal indeed as she will do absolutely anything at all to protect her young.

Wild boar or ‘Artiodactyla’ to give them their scientific name, are found in many areas of Pakistan and are a major nuisance in sugar and potato growing areas as they play havoc with these, and many other, crops. Until about 10 years ago, however, these largely nocturnal animals, had not taken up residence in the Murree and Nathia Gali mountains but, possibly as a result of population pressure and human expansionism, they decided to move on up and, due a lack of predators, there are not enough leopards around to eat them up and as their flesh is prohibited to Muslims, their numbers have increased rapidly and, unless controls are instigated, are liable to become a major nuisance factor in the mountains too.

A fully grown male wild boar can weigh in at as much as approximately 150kg and, with an average shoulder height of around 86cm, are solid muscle and power from snout to the tip of their short, hair-tipped tail. Brownish black in colour, wild boar have very tiny eyes set well back, almost next to their pointed ears, in their massive heads and both males and females have short tusks which they use for fighting others of their kind and other animals.

And these vicious animas do not think twice about attacking humans if the mood takes them.

The female generally gives birth to up to eight piglets sometime between July and October all depending on weather conditions and which part of the country she resides in.

They much prefer to live in small groups than be on their own and, as the residents of Islamabad know to their cost, are extremely destructive and highly dangerous animals all round.